I am a CMF missionary among the Turkana people of Kenya. I have served there since 1996. My primary work has been in Adult Literacy. In 2009 I began teaching English to our Turkana church leaders.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Back Porch Cafe

Hello!

I need to update you all on my last English class. We had a lot of fun during the week. I had some visitors from Colorado come for a few hours the first day of class. They helped my students figure out how to set a table. I had plastic ware, paper plates, placemats, napkins, and plastic cups for the to practice with. That also meant the worked on telling someone where to put something or asking where to put something. The visitors and my students had fun.

The rest of the week, we worked on cooking terms and what to say in restaurants. I made up two dialogs and one restaurant chant. They had fun with the chant, but I had to slow it way down for them to get the beat and cadence of the words. This was the first time I asked the students to make up their own dialog. They had some trouble figuring out what I wanted them to do, but most of them got it in the end. They had to act it out in front of the class in groups of three. I think they had fun and it got them thinking about why I might have these dialogs. It is interesting to see that they still think they need to say the name of the person speaking instead of just saying the line. Something I need to work on with them.

On Saturday we had a fun final day. I brought them all to my house at 10 am. They were divided into three groups. Each group had an english speaking teacher (a Brit, a Kenyan and me) that helped them make a food item. They changed teachers and food items twice. So, I made Pizza with my group both times. My British friend, Ali Edapal, taught the first group to make Kenyan fry (chopped meat with some veggies and a little juice). The second group she taught how to make spaghetti sauce. They had to grind the meat and chop all the vegetables for both of these food items. My Kenyan friend, Mary, taught them how to cook ugali (white corn meal boiled till dry) and sikuma wiki (greens with tomatoes and onions). The second group learned how to make rice and a thick cabbage and potato stew (not much juice). All these things helped them put into practice the words they learned about chopping, slicing, cutting, boiling, grating, grinding, stirring, and baking.

After the cooking lessons, they moved a big table onto my back porch and set the table. Then, I took orders and served them while Ali and Mary put the food on plates for me. I added some desserts and a cole slaw salad to make the meal complete. Those who ordered ice cream got a surprise at how cold it was. There were a few funny faces :).

So, all in all the last class went really well. The students were really trying hard to use their English. I posted some pictures on my facebook page of the cooking. I was too busy serving food to think about taking pictures of the Back Porch Cafe. I hope you all had a good week too! blessings!!!!!